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US panelists pessimistic about G20 fruit

By Tan Yingzi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-11-12 12:57

WASHINGTON - Not much can be expected from the ongoing G20 summit in South Korea and the meeting tends to be more about politics than economics, panelists concluded Wednesday at an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) event in Washington.

Philip Levy, scholar from the AEI, noted that the group is not effective at convincing anyone to sacrifice for the international good after evaluating the G20's record. He said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's proposal to cap current account surpluses is exactly the sort of issue the G20 should discuss. China and Germany, however, have already dismissed the idea.

Another AEI expert Desmond Lachman suggested that a smaller G4 should be assembled, with the United States, China, Japan, and Germany working together to address international economic issues.

Arrigo Sadun, a member of the IMF executive board, said it is "law of diminishing cooperation"--that is, countries came together during the height of the financial crisis, but with no real urgency now, he expects minimal cooperation from world powers.

From a European perspective, Sadun said, a modest level of progress in international cooperation would be viewed as a success, even if nothing concrete emerges from the meetings.